Vintage News Articles & Finds

[Elmer Bud]

A Cambodian Army officer exhales marijuana smoke after using a homemade water pipe as a soldier plays guitar in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 1973



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G `day B C Dub

Its not uncommon to see folks in Cambodia and Vietnam smoking bongs of tobacco .
My GF was keen to score some herb in Phnom Penh . She saw some labourers smoking a bong on the foot path and asked about ganja , they smiled, shook their heads and showed a bowl of tobacco .

Thanks for sharin

EB .

 

[billycw]

G `day B C Dub

Its not uncommon to see folks in Cambodia and Vietnam smoking bongs of tobacco .
My GF was keen to score some herb in Phnom Penh . She saw some labourers smoking a bong on the foot path and asked about ganja , they smiled, shook their heads and showed a bowl of tobacco .

Thanks for sharin

EB .

Good stuff EB, crazy how tobacco culture changed the world. That photo specified he was 'marijuana'.

The area would have first been exposed to smoking cannabis from a water pipe when the Mongols repeatedly tried to conquer Southeast Asia in 1257, again in 1284 and yet again in 1287 under Kublai Khan (cannabis as medicine in the area would have gone back far earlier).

True story, when I was younger and was apartment living, the apartment management came into my apartment when I wasn't home to do something and saw my big 2 1/2 foot triple bubble bong sitting out.

They gave us a notice of intent to evict due to drug paraphernalia.

I spent my time cleaning the shit out of the bong getting every little scrap of resin free. Then I went and bought a bunch of loose tobacco. Came home and spent the weekend smoking as much tobacco as I could through the cleaned bong to get it resinated with it.

Walked through the entire complex to the front office holding this giant glass triple bubble bong and explained to them I like smoking tobacco in a water pipe, even offered to let them test the resin.

Worked

Smoking straight tobacco from a bong is not as easy as you would think, got me so sick

 

[billycw]

Poppy field in Big Eddy, British Columbia, Canada early 1920's

 

[Bud Green]

Hey Billy,
You find some really cool pics to show here.. Thanks!

I have a homemade bong pic that's older than your Cambodian army officer pic...
I guess 46 years qualifies as vintage nowadays..

I built this bong in the hills of Jamaica in 1972...
And I can guarantee that only good ganja was smoked thru it!

..

 

[billycw]

Hey Billy,
You find some really cool pics to show here.. Thanks!

I have a homemade bong pic that's older than your Cambodian army officer pic...
I guess 46 years qualifies as vintage nowadays..

I built this bong in the hills of Jamaica in 1972...
And I can guarantee that only good ganja was smoked thru it!

..

Killer pic Bud, thanks for sharing. Curious if you took that pipe back home or left it in Jamaica? Those bamboo waterpipes will always scream 70's to me, never easy sliding into the vintage catagory

 

[billycw]

'Never lose hope don't use dope', "4th grader holds one of the hundreds of cards to be released on gas filled balloons during D.A.R.E. celebration." Los Angeles, California September 15, 1988

 

[billycw]

'Nature class: Teachers show primary school children how to plant seeds in a plot of land' in New York City. picture was taken in about 1900

 

[billycw]

Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home in Charlottesville, Virginia 1912



Raiding the Dead Presidents

Like a bad plot to a Scooby Doo episode, the DEA in their infinite wisdom decided to raid one of our founding fathers 161 years after his death...

The home Thomas Jefferson designed and built himself in Charlottesville, Virginia was named Monticello. At the home Jefferson would tend a 'medical garden' in which he grew plants he felt had a medical value. In April 1812, Jefferson planted 'Papaver Somniferum' or white poppy around the roundabout flower border.

Not only did one of our founding father's grow white poppy but Jefferson also harvested and used the drug from his plants!

In 1825 his doctor Dr. Robley Dunglison, would prescribe 'laudanum' to Jefferson for his diarrhea (*Laudanum is just a Opium tincture). Wanting to control his own medication he made his own...


"The day before yesterday I rode about my garden in a walk half an hour, without any inconvenience at that time or since ... I suppose therefore that with care and laudanum I may consider myself in what is to be my habitual state."

- Thomas Jefferson, November 1825

Papaver Somniferum (white poppy) growing in the garden of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home, Charlottesville, Virginia




After his death the Papaver Somniferum would continue to be grown on the Monticello estate by the Thomas Jefferson Monticello Foundation preserving his original genetics. The flowers became so popular on public tours of Monticello they were sold in seed form in the gift shop as 'Monticello Poppies'.

Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home in Charlottesville, Virginia



One day in 1987 the DEA took it upon themselves to clean up the founding fathers image...

Out of the blue, DEA Agents chose to raid the Monticello estate. Gathering the employee's together the agents demanded all the poppies to be uprooted and destroyed or they would be forced to start arresting people...

The scared employee's immediately started ripping the flowers from the grounds gardens while the agents watched...

The DEA agents also found the "Thomas Jefferson Monticello Poppies" seed packages in the gift shop and demanded them to all be destroyed, even though the seeds were perfectly legal to sell.

The Shop's employee's were so scared by the threatening agents they gathered up shirts and other items with the 'Monticello Poppies' printed on them and burned them in a field on the grounds...

1928 U.S. 2 dollar bill back with Monticello estate pictured



To this day tours at Monticello estates no longer mention Thomas Jefferson's Monticello poppies that once flourished on his historic estate...


"Information is the currency of democracy"

- Thomas Jefferson

U.S. Government Burning Opium in the street of China Town, San Francisco, California 1914

 

[Betterhaff]

Coming back from a trip to the outer banks we stopped at Monticello. What a cool place. They had an area near the parking lot where a plant sale was set up with a lot of the plants that are grown on the property. Didn’t see any “Monticello Poppies” though.

It was getting late in the day and we headed off toward the gardens, most people were on their way out, we were just starting to explore. We found a grove of numerous varieties of fig trees and they were ready for harvest. I don’t know what they do with the fruit grown there but it was sublime for us. Off the vine ripe figs on a late summer day. We just sat there soaking in the sun gorging ourselves on figs.

 

[PDX Dopesmoker]

In 1980s Virginia every single old colonial era farm and civil war site that was set up for tourism had a lot of the same stuff for sale their gift shops, most of them carried old fashioned clay pipes like the one in this recent post:

Still Life with a Glass of Beer, a Pipe, Tobacco and Other Requisites of Smoking (hemp lighter) by Jan Jansz van de Velde in 1658



Long before you could be publicly shamed for using a Bic by the eco friendly crowd, Tokers were already using hemp wicks to spark their bowls


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Love how he signed his pieces as a carving in the table

Headshops were illegal in Virginia so if you didn't want to drive to the district for a piece, stopping at this or that mill or farm for a working historical replica was an option that was made use of occasionally. I wonder if the DEA got all the historical tourism secret headshops shut down or just TJ's Monticello Stash? By the time 1987 had come around I'd found a shop in Baltimore that was carrying the Tokemaster line of bongs so thats where I did most of my headshop shopping. I guess I fled the colonial tourism gift shop drug paraphernalia scene just in time.

 

[billycw]

Coming back from a trip to the outer banks we stopped at Monticello. What a cool place. They had an area near the parking lot where a plant sale was set up with a lot of the plants that are grown on the property. Didn’t see any “Monticello Poppies” though.

It was getting late in the day and we headed off toward the gardens, most people were on their way out, we were just starting to explore. We found a grove of numerous varieties of fig trees and they were ready for harvest. I don’t know what they do with the fruit grown there but it was sublime for us. Off the vine ripe figs on a late summer day. We just sat there soaking in the sun gorging ourselves on figs.

Read like a passage from a love story, loved the imagery, thanks for sharing Betterhalf

In 1980s Virginia every single old colonial era farm and civil war site that was set up for tourism had a lot of the same stuff for sale their gift shops, most of them carried old fashioned clay pipes like the one in this recent post:



Headshops were illegal in Virginia so if you didn't want to drive to the district for a piece, stopping at this or that mill or farm for a working historical replica was an option that was made use of occasionally.

Epic PDX! Always wanted a nice antique clay to add to the collection, a nice incentive to stop and soak in the history... thanks for sharing

 

[billycw]

'Canapis' Illustration of Cannabis from 'Ortus Sanitatis' by Jacob Meydenbach. Mainz, Germany, 1491

 

[billycw]

'The Peace Pipe' photographed by Carl Moon, Arizona 1909

 

[billycw]

Men use a horse-drawn reaper or hemp harvester to harvest hemp in a field. Dated 1912

 

[billycw]

Vintage Canadian Headshop. Roy Smyth in his cigar store (where Somewon Collective stands today) with hookahs and pipes on display on the counter. Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada 1880's

 

[billycw]

Ottoman Women in Ox-Drawn Carriage at Yuşa Hill, Turkey by Pascal Sebah in 1865

Closeup

 

[Bud Green]

Those are some tall back wheels on that nice looking carriage!

And what's up with that dog just lying there??

 

[billycw]

the Cedar Woods of Lankey, Texas 1973



EPA Approved Smoke Spot

"In the 1970s, the newly created Environmental Protection Agency commissioned nearly 100 photographers to document environmental issues around the country.

Marc St. Gil was assigned to record images related to the water and air pollution crisis in the area around Houston, Texas. While snapping photos in the Cedar Woods of Lankey, Texas, he happened upon several young people enjoying nature — and some marijuana. Instead of having them arrested, St. Gil captured some very candid shots of the pot smokers."

-the Cedar Woods of Lankey, Texas 1973

 

[billycw]

EPA Approved Smoke Spot Continued...

*IC member Al Botross posted a link to this story on page 16 of this thread, had it sitting with my stuff and thought I would post it all here.

 

[Hermanthegerman]

Beautiful pictures for real!!